Another batch of notes from my travels through the game Eidolon, a game that inspired me many years ago and kickstarted my ideas to make my current story world. Read my previous article "Searching Eidolon" to see the earlier notes.
A additional 2560 words... my last was 1500. Wild to see how much I have been writing. But I am making lots of progress, since i did two streams of the game on twitch. If you wanna see the VODs, theyre on my channel here or twitch!
Ada speaks of witnessing an explosion and fire, able to save one person from the incident who spoke very differently from them, not knowing where he was. Ada was not familiar with him, and he seems to know a lot more than they do. I also pass by a seemingly massive body of water to the far west. Not far off I come by what seems to be the crash site that Ada speaks of.
The survivor was named Basil, who was sent from space to check on the status of humans on Earth- but has found through Ada that nothing seems to be left, and no one remembers it. Ada is unfamiliar with the descriptions of cities, beacons, immortal people and so on. It seems that from this, humans had gone to space and abandoned Earth, unaware of what occurred there. The end of Ada's note is written differently and mentions returning home with all this information.
I still wonder the timeline of the Father... if I am not mistaken about his fliers encouraging people to leave the cities, then how long has he been alive? Unsure about this. So it has been 150 years since Earth stopped communicating, and i assume its due to The Fall. But unsure if Oldtown spawned right after that (making Father very old) or sometime long after (which would better explain people forgetting the cities etc).
It seems I may have run out of Ada's pages... and now will continue for more Oldtown information. Eventually as I follow, I come across crumbles buildings, very tall, near the water. I see a glimmer of a note, and go over to it. It seems to be a letter from someone back before the Fall had happened. The person is named Jamie, and describes cities "going dark" but not explaining what this means. Something about Reach not coming for them, and riots starting. I find a zine of stories that paint some details about "Sennin" who I assume are those who can heal, how they have a green glow in their eyes. And calling a non-Sennin "blandie". I am going to follow Jamie's notes before I go back to Oldtown, assuming they are all within radius. I find a flier about stopping the making of the beacons, mentioning deepstone which seems to be what heals people. I find a letter from a man named Steve describing happiness at his wife's chronic illness being healed by the light of the Beacon.
Jamie's letters are much farther apart than I realized, but I think these are more urgent to find even if I am sidetracked towards a different lead. I am passing through a vast expanse of flat land, with buildings even more massive than before. On my trail, I find a note from Anders, I will have to go back to himd later. I walked down an incredibly long stretch of road until I found Jamie's next letter further describing riots and cities going dark... But now I stand at the expanse of a road that continues on. The morning fog makes it impossible to know how far it goes and I am afraid this may lead me far across the water like I remember from years ago.
I recall a long bridge off into the water, and there was little to help you survive, even on the other side which lacked tinder. So I will have to be careful, and may pick this lead up later. I also found binoculars. More from Jamie describes 'going out' is the Beacons, and describes other vague things I don't have context for in regards to burning bodies (rioters?). On my path I find a new letter from a Sennin, who is writing about going to Bellevuew. She describes a Wild Girl curious of her and the other Sennin, Elden. She also describes how life gathers around Sennin, but in their path plants die- it concerns the Wild Girl and many others who see this.
I think I should definitely find out more about The Fall, as Oldtown occurred after and I need to peice these details together for context.
Jamie describes stopping rioters from getting to Olympia after Bellevue's Beacon goes out. Seems to call them 'The Faithful" and I assume the fights have to do with lack of answers, and trying to get to a Beacon to keep living. And It seems this was the last letter from Jamie. I may need to dip back into the woods to find tinder, as I have not seen any in quite some time. So far I have gone this entire time without dying and I would like to stay on the path I am on. I find another letter from the Sennin visiting Bellevue, which must be where I am as it describes large walls that block the city, and its what I keep running into. These Sennin are visiting after the fall, and I think even far after Oldtown too, as I want to guess they were sent to investigate like Basil was, perhaps. They seem to be retreiving something from inside Bellevue.
As I round the cliffside I see the expanse of the ruined city, and bridges. I follow the edge to search for more about The Fall, walking alongside building leaning on their side, pointing at the horizon. In the ruin, I find a newpaper describing a horrible earthquake that left Seattle ruined, making the university of Washington move to Belleevue. It seems that Bellevue becomes a important city, almost a new capital. This earthquake may be important but I will come back to it later. The ruined pennisula becomes more and more dense as I walk on, almost to the point where I'm not sure where I'm going. The trees and buildings are so meshed together its hard to see the edge. In the ruins I find a letter from someone named James Moncada, saying he has a way to bring truLight to the entire globe.
There is something almost unnerving about working my way deeper into this ever dense forest of ruins, seeing more and more bones on the ground. Additionally, I feel like I must be missing a million things here. This lead towards more information on The Fall seems farther off than I expected, and on my walks I see a massive skeleton of a tower to the east. It seems far too large, perhaps it was a Beacon. I think I'll head towards it and seek more information on the Beacon and sennin, as I really wish to know more of their origin when gaining context on The Fall. The structure is huge, definitely bigger than everything else. I have to assume its a beacon, as it towers above everything. There are more walls around, crumbled, and ruins of builds that look so small in comparison.
Strangely the first thing I find when I approach the Beacon is an article about a missing person. I started following the documents about these missing people, hoping it wouldn't be far away- but either it is far away, or this city is just massive. I think it may be massive. But it didn't take too long, and I strange find a digital document instead. One that speaks in first person, in *future* tense, related to the missing persons/killer's documents. Sometimes as I walk I see a glow of green in the woods. I couldn't tell if it was a mistake or not, but I am sure its significant. Even though there is nothing there, it undeniable that the glow is specific to certain places.
The documents on this potential killer seem to describe someone who lost their sister and looks at the missing people as her- Elise, and claims to be saving them from immortality. All of them are smart young women, which seems similar to the killer's sister. I follow the killer's story more as it seems they are closer and closer together. This person is definitely describing finding women like their sister, and killing them by cremation, in order to make them into a pigment for paint. Far more disturbing of a story than I expected.
It mess I have collected all the documents on the killer. This short side story was... well, unnerving. It seems I am finding various snippets of various lives in the city. While finding those ones, I also found some random lone documents from citizens who lived here. A few about some person who seems to be in a cult. I must be in Bellevue, and it seems full of lost letters. Even if they are small side stories, I think I will follow some more leads here while I can, so I don't have to wander all the way back. I continue this trail on the cult, and it gives some insight to the mindset people had about Beacons- not unlike those at Oldtown.
New letter found from Elspeth, describing death culture and suicides. Using the word "doubles", don't have a definition for that yet. Elspeth describes being a medic, and cities going down- likely referring to the Fall that occurs? Moving towards more information about the Fall, a digital article talks in more detail of Deepstone and how it works. That it comes from the sea and needs to be kept in a cold environment. New information about the Sennin describe how people got it- mostly through men, and through a drug from truCorp. It also describes important information- stating that Sennin can take light from a Beacon source, which happened in LA during a riot- a beacon had been temporarily shut off.
Another letter from Triya which I haven't come across in some time- she was trying to find something in the city after the fall that seemed important, created by Reach. She says its something to cur Beacon addiction, but does not go into more detail. Triya describes that they did not find what they were looking for, but that the scientists who worked on this project moved to Port Angeles. She also says that the 'people' responsible for the Fall should be long dead as they search through these already destroyed cities. Triya's notes seem to describe there being very few people around, and mostly sennin after the Fall. Triya's last letter for now describes going off across the water to continue their journey- I will have to see if I can make it there at some point.
New digital document describes a presidential debate, and confirms that Reach is the company behind the development of the Beacons. A document from during the Fall? dated in year 2142. Very far east, near the snow and mountains, I found page 16 of Elspeth's diary- noting that her boss died. It sounds like it may be from Beacon sickness. Elspeth's letters seem to describe tha she left a city with her boss after a Beacon went out, and they are searching for another city before they die of beacon withdrawal.
New letter found from someone named Lewis, I have to assume this may be another person trying to escape a city after the beacons fell? He describes people no longer being around town, escaping. Traveling down the river, I go off towards inland again because of the mountains. Eventually I follow the road, leading back towards another city, and discover another beacon.
Another one of Elspeth's notes, it seems that where they were living was overrun by people who came from a city that had their beacons shut down. Having figured out how to reach eidolons in the air by shooting with a bow, I am tracking the beacon topic again- as its one I left behind because I couldn't reach it. I had to follow a few more letters from Elspeth and Lewis before I could reroute back to that location. I will come back to those two when I feel I have caught up on the timeline... Still following a lead for the Beacons, i came across an antry about the Exiled Artists, something I am aware of but will have to pick up later. I unintentionally found the first two pages of Elspeth's notes which gave some earlier context to the world. Definitely describes the Beacon era, how people could be easily healed and no one died. Some people from before the beacons did commit suicide however. Killing themselves in ways that could not be repaired fast enough (shot to the head).
On my continued travels, I seem to get closer and closer to the mountains, and while avoiding direct snow, a region seems to have active snowfall... I will have to see if I can go around this, because otherwise I dont know how to go through. The letter I was looking for was in fact through some of the snow, across the water- had to shoot at it to get it. Seems to describe a journal of someone whos left the beacon's influence, but I dont think this is during the fall, just someone who wants to do it willingly? The next thing I find is a photo, of a wood structure that was in this area- seems like the one described in the letter I just read.
The next node for the Beacon I followed shockingly took me all the way back to Oldtown, with a journal entry from Anders a year past the one I last saw. He describes getting sick from leaving the beacon while staying in Oldtown. I found a new letter from Triya, mentioning the wild girl but also describing more about the world before the Fall and after. They talk about how people flocked to cities with beacons, even if they weren't close enough to have the effect of it. Eventually, the beacon cities put up walls to block people off entirely. Which resulted in much anger and riots due to being cut off from the advancing technology. Triya seems to be proof that some humans exist in some form, but I am not yet sure how or why. I am able to continue Triya's journal pages again, as I seem to be working backwards for some that I missed, rather than the one that seemed to go across the water.
I think I have found the remaining entries, so I am taking a detour to follow a node for a map. I found a map, which is much more useful than the others from before. It gives a big overview of the area, with lakes and rivers. I first followed from where I was, down one river, then south, then followed another river east until I reached the lake on the far end of the mountain range. From there I left the water to look for the freeway, which is not far from the lake. I am now following Triya's notes from the freeway, North-east from it. After going north east, it eventually has pointed back north. I found one of Triya's entries, which seems to be after they left Port Angeles. It describes a lot of their time during the fall, along which inhabitants who lived here long after the Fall. I am being pointed away from the road, which I really want to travel. So I am heading back to the freeway, to follow it all the way to the water.